A typical locomotive includes a complex electromechanical system comprising a plurality of complex systems and subsystems. Many of these systems and subsystems are manufactured from components that will fail over time. The operational parameters of a locomotive system or subsystem are controlled by control systems and monitored with on-board sensors that may continually monitor on-board operational parameters of systems, subsystems, and/or other components during operation of the locomotive to detect potential or actual failures.
Some of the problems currently encountered with conventional control systems include the need to reconfigure control systems for disparate components of the locomotive. For e.g. in the event of failure of one control system then another control system of the locomotive may need to be reconfigured to control its operation. This may be time consuming and may increase the downtime of the locomotive.
Additionally, conventional control systems may suffer from a lack of robust, mission critical, extensible and scalable components, which results in an undesirably higher cost, a less standardized and flexible architecture, and undesirably complex and complicated control system.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,935,020 discloses a system of electronic modules that power navigation, communication and sensing devices. The electronic modules use a configurable controller. The internal circuitry of the controller can be reconfigured to use the controller in differing conditions.